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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27712373">A genius's struggle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pokegirl2003/pseuds/Pokegirl2003'>Pokegirl2003</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Puyo Puyo (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:27:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,475</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27712373</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pokegirl2003/pseuds/Pokegirl2003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After having Ayashii separated from his body, Klug is seemingly recovering quite nicely. But of course, the scars of possession aren't to keen on fading in just a few days.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A genius's struggle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Klug groaned as the light came into his room. 6 AM was a good time for a genius such as him to get out of bed, but getting out of bed was always a struggle, even for geniuses. But the day was calling, and that day meant more studying and practicing magic. He stretched out his back, before swinging his legs over the side of the bed, and walking over to the mirror.<br/>
As he was walking, the events of the past few days flashed through his mind, making him pause slightly. Klug had stolen the three items from Lemres, the Star Lantern, the Moon Stone, and the Sun Bookmark. Of course, he had been probably controlled by a demon hidden inside his book, but the fact still remained of what happened.<br/>
Bringing all three items together released the demon, who had revealed themself to be named “Ayashii”. Ayashii took over Klug’s body, trapping Klug’s spirit in the very book that housed Ayashii all these years. If it wasn’t for Sig, Raffina, and Amitie taking the three items away, they reversed the process. Even if the reason they obtained the items was for their own means instead of trying to help Klug, in the end Ayashii returned to the book, Klug back to his own body, and the items in the safe keeping of Lemres.<br/>

As Klug stared at himself in the mirror, pondering what today could bring for him, he ran his hand through his hair. A bed head was out of place for one such as him. He would have to find a hair brush immediately. But as he was about to turn to find where he had placed it, the image in the mirror changed. He was no longer staring at himself, but at someone else. The familiar disheveled image and flowing cape caused Klug to step back upon seeing it. “No! Not you!” Klug cried. The image didn’t mimic his motions, simply staring at him through the glass wall.<br/>
“W-What are you staring at?” Klug asked, the image again, not moving.<br/>
He knew exactly who this person was. It was his body being controlled by that demon.<br/>
“Get out!” He shouted, trying to sound brave. Klug stepped forward, and punched the mirror with full force. A sharp pain erupted throughout his hand, starting at his knuckles and slowly moving down to where his hand connected with his wrist. He slowly stepped back, the image reverting back to his own reflection. The sound of the shattering mirror echoed throughout the room, and his hand suddenly felt something warm drip down, dropping onto the floor.<br/>
Klug looked at it, paling at the sight of the blood on his hand. He couldn’t explain this rationally. How was he, the genius that he was, to explain “I saw my other self in a mirror and I punched it”.<br/>
But the image wouldn’t leave his head. That unkempt person, staring blankly. But they had power. Way too much power. It was… horrifying. That was the word Klug decided on. Klug winced at the pain. “I-I should prepare myself and head out. It’s a nice day outside- perfect for studying magic outside and away from my possibly possessed and now broken, mirror.”<br/>

He grabbed the hairbrush with his non-bloodied hand, settling the giant mess that was his hair. Klug quickly changed out of his pajamas into his normal attire. As he was placing his hat on his head, he kept looking at his bloodied hand. Klug would occasionally pull glass shards out of it, each one stinging as he did so. “I should find some bandages. Having a bloodied hand while practicing magic is a… rather horrible idea.”<br/>
However, as he looked around the room, he couldn’t find any bandages anywhere. “Ah. It appears that I must’ve forgotten to stock up on bandages. That is a problem.” While Klug was looking around, his eyes fell on the door leading to the rest of the house. “Maybe I put them somewhere else in the house?” He wondered, opening up the door leading to the kitchen. The room was dark, and with a quick snap of his fingers some small lights dotted the sides of the room. “Bandages… bandages…” Klug mumbled as he looked around the room.<br/>
“Hey.”<br/>

Klug froze. “Y-You... “<br/>
“Yeah. Me.”<br/>
Klug slowly turned, each of his movements slow and robotic. On a kitchen table, a small red demon was floating out of an open book. “Haven’t seen you in a while. Don’t tell me you forgot about me.” Ayashii teased. Klug stepped back, his normal hand bumping up against the counter behind him. “O-O-Of course I haven’t forgotten about you! I-”<br/>
“That’s good. Because you shouldn’t forget about me.” Ayashii cut him off. “You’ve felt my power… don’t you want to feel it again? If we work together, there’s no telling the amount of destruction we could cause.” Despite being at an incredibly small size, Klug was still intimidated by the power given off by the demon. “You know where that green hatted one keeps those items. All you need to do is to take them.”<br/>
Klug violently shook his head, his hat almost falling off. “N-No! I will not be taking those items from Lemres! That… that would just… it could cause way too much chaos!” Ayashii laughed at Klug’s stutter. “You’re funny. But you know you can’t keep saying “no”. You know that. You will fall back into my power again.” Klug was silent at Ayashii’s statement. “You know I’m right. So why wait? Go, obtain those items- “<br/>
“NO!”<br/>
Klug sprinted out of his house, slamming the door behind him. He panted heavily. “It was… it was just an illusion! I just need more sleep! I…” Klug sighed. 

There was no justifying it. He was living with a demon now unless he wanted to burn the book or throw it in the woods. But burning the book would more than likely just release the demon again, or worse, have to move the demon to another book. Throwing the book to the woods could place someone else under the spell of the demon, which Klug knew was a terrible idea. “I wonder if I could convince him to possess something heavy in which he couldn’t move… but then I’d need to make sure nobody else released him…” Klug muttered to himself, before looking at his hand once more.<br/>
“Perhaps Professor Accord has some bandages she wouldn’t mind me borrowing! Yes, I’ll go seek out the professor!” He slipped his hand into his vest pocket, carefully moving it so the bloodied section didn’t bump up against the top of the pocket. Blood was a horrible thing to clean after all. With his other hand dangling carefree by his side, Klug began his search to find his professor.<br/>
His search took him to a local park in Primp Town first. The fountain was bellowing water at a normal pace, and Klug always enjoyed coming to this park to study. Practicing magic on the water was a good way to test the effects of a spell. Today the park was mostly empty, with only one inhabitant.<br/>

“Klug!” Amitie called cheerfully, running up to him. “Oh, it’s so good to see you! How are you feeling?” She asked, a wide smile on her face like normal. “Ah, hello Amitie! I-”<br/>
“You look really pale! Did you see a ghost?” Amitie didn’t bother to let him finish. Klug paused. Her remark threw him off slightly. “D-Do I now?” He asked. The magician nodded. “Yeah! You look like something spooked you! Are you okay?”<br/>
Klug nodded. “I-I’m quite alright. It was just… there was a trash can, and a cat knocked it over! The noise it made spooked me quite a bit!”<br/>
A lie. But he didn’t want to tell Amitie the truth. She was a good kid, but a naive one. Knowing her, if Klug told her the truth, she would do whatever she could do to try and help him.<br/>
“Why’s your hand in your pocket? And where’s your book, too?” Amitie badgered him with questions. “Well, I-”<br/>
“Do you have something in your pocket?” She asked. Klug shook his head. “N-No! Of course I don’t! I just… it’s a little chilly today.” Amitie rested a finger on her chin curiously. “It’s actually really warm today. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?” She asked. But before Klug could respond, Amitie reached over and pulled Klug’s hand out of his pocket. “Woah…! Klug, your hand! What happened to it?!” Amitie asked, her face lit up with shock. Klug looked down, holding the wrist of his bloodied hand with his other hand. “Well um… that cat when it knocked over that trash can ran over to me! And it scratched my hand rather ferociously. I didn’t want you to see this of course, because I’m aware of how the sight of blood affects some people, heh, so I just hid my hand in my pocket!” Amitie smiled cheerfully. “Aw, how considerate! But this looks really bad! You should get some bandages!”<br/>
Klug nodded in agreement. “But of course! I was searching for Professor Accord to see if she had any on her.” He explained. Amitie’s face lit up once more, a sense of adventure forming in her eyes. “Let’s look together! And if we can’t find her, I’m sure we can buy some bandages in Primp Town! I’d be more than happy to help you wrap them!” Amitie offered. There was no saying no to Amitie when she looked this happy. Even Klug knew that. He slipped his bloodied hand back into his pocket, and nodded.<br/>
“Good idea! Having four sets of eyes is more potent than two, after all.”</p><p>The two of them headed towards the magic school, each looking around to locate their teacher. But even though they both arrived at the magic school, they couldn’t find their professor. But who they could find however, was a familiar grey haired magician with a green garment. “Lemres!” Amitie said cheerfully. The warlock turned towards the sound of her voice. “Amitie! And Klug too! Good to see ya both!” He said kindly. Amitie hurried over to him, with Klug about to follow, before a thought slipped into his mind.<br/>
Did he really deserve to stand side by side with his idol? After everything Klug did, did he really deserve it? Klug stole the items, he had forced his friends to fight against a possessed version of himself… and then there was that lie to Amitie. It was a white lie, sure, but a lie nonetheless.<br/>
“Klug?”<br/>
Lemres’s voice pulled Klug out of his train of thought. He jolted back to reality, both Lemres and Amitie staring at him strangely. “Thought we lost ya for a moment. You ok?” The comet warlock asked. Klug nodded, quickly jumping back into his normal demeanor. “Y-Yes! I just simply zoned out for a moment! That was all!”<br/>
Lemres crossed his arms. “Hmm, ya sure? You seemed pretty upset over something. It ain’t like ya. Do you wanna talk about it?” Klug pressed his non-bloodied hand up against the bridge of his glasses. “Things have just been rather stressful lately! It isn’t much of a concern.” Lemres could sense Klug’s desperation to drop the topic. “If you say so. So what brings the two of you over here?” Lemres asked. Amitie smiled happily, sensing that the mood was picking back up again.<br/>
“We were looking for Professor Accord! Have you seen her?” She asked. Lemres fingered his wand as he tried to think. “Professor Accord… I don’t think I’ve seen her today. She might be busy. Why do you two need to see her?” He asked. Amitie grabbed Klug’s arm.<br/>
“Klug got attacked by a cat! We were hoping she might have some bandages on her to help!” Klug immediately went defensive. “I-I wasn’t planning on saying that right out, but y-yes that is what happened.” He explained, occasionally stammering. Amitie pulled Klug’s arm out of his pocket, Lemres slightly wincing at the sight. “Must’ve been an angry cat to beat you up that much, huh?” He remarked. Klug nodded. “It had knocked over a trash can, which did indeed spook me. Perhaps it saw me and thought I was a scratching post?”<br/>
Lemres looked towards the school. “Well, I haven’t seen Professor Accord all day, but that does look rather serious. I hope you weren’t going to spend all day with it bleeding like that.” He stated. Amitie shook her head. “Of course we weren’t! If we couldn’t find her, we were going to go to Primp Town and buy some bandages there!” She exclaimed. This seemed to please Lemres for the most part. “I see. Well… hey Amitie, since I gotcha here can I ask you to do me a favor? I brought a bug from my hometown for Sig since I mentioned it to him once, but I haven’t seen him lately. Do you think you could bring this to him?”<br/>
He pulled a small plastic cage from his cloak, with a medium sized bug inside and handed the cage to Amitie. “Sure! I’ll try and find him! Leave it to me!” She declared, taking the cage and hurrying off. 
Once she was safely out of sight, Lemres turned to Klug.<br/>
“That wasn’t a cat that got you, was it?” He asked. Klug mentally panicked. “I, well-”<br/>
“I can understand not wanting to tell her, especially if it’s what I think it is. But she did want to help. Lying to her isn’t good.”<br/>
Klug felt a small twinge of embarrassment upon being called out. “I- I didn’t want to bother her with such a triviality.”<br/>
The warlock looked around a little bit, before spotting a bench near the entrance of the school building. “Why don’t ya sit with me for a bit?” Klug followed behind Lemres as the two sat down besides one another. He pulled a roll of cloth from his cloak. “You’ve had those on you this whole time?” Lemres nodded.<br/>
“I’ve started keeping some cloth nearby just in case I slip up when practicing. Even I mess up sometimes, and sometimes it gets a lil' messy.” He carefully took Klug’s bleeding hand, plucking some glass shards out that Klug had missed. “Even you mess up?” Klug asked. Lemres nodded. “Of course! Nobody is perfect. Even I’ve got things I’m lacking in.”<br/>
Lemres plucked the last piece of glass out of Klug’s hand that the brunette had missed. “I don’t think I’ve seen any cat with glass claws before. You must’ve punched your mirror or something similar, am I right?”<br/>
Klug looked down as Lemres slowly began wrapping the injury with the cloth. “Yes… I punched the mirror. But I have an explanation for it, I swear!” Lemres chuckled a little bit. “Well, what is it?”<br/>
Klug sighed. “I… I was looking in the mirror. And I saw that demon again, the form it took when it possessed me. And it spooked me quite a bit so I-”<br/>
“You punched it?”<br/>
“Yes.”<br/>
Lemres paused for a moment, before finishing wrapping Klug’s hand. “You’re really good at this.” Klug noted. Lemres smiled briefly. “Well, I am a master of wrapping candies. Goes without saying that I picked up on wrapping other things too.” He stated, releasing Klug’s hand.<br/>
“Is he still there? Ayashii, I mean. I noticed that you still had the book last I checked.” Klug slowly nodded at Lemres’s question.<br/>
“He actually talked to me today, before I booked it out of my house. He… also spooked me.” Lemres was quiet for a moment, trying to think about what to say. “Might I ask what he said to you?” He asked. Klug nodded.<br/>
“He wanted those items again. The ones that freed him last time.” Lemres was serious upon hearing this. “Is that so…?” He pondered.<br/>
“I think it goes without saying that I won’t be letting those items off easily. They need to be kept safe.” Lemres explained. Klug nodded. “But of course! I can perfectly understand why you would do that.” Upon hearing that, Lemres got up. “Sounds like that demon still has some power over ya, mentally at least. But you’ve gotta be able to take control over him, too. You can't let that little fella bother you when he's in his powerless state.” He explained. Klug got up as well.<br/>
"What do you mean?" Klug asked. Lemres smiled warmly. "I'll explain later. Mind showing me to where he’s been hiding out?”</p><p>Klug opened the door to his house, Lemres following behind him. It took the fear of confronting Ayashii again to suppress the joy of inviting Lemres to his house as the two stepped inside. The book was still on the kitchen table, and the small reddish demon floating up upon the two walking in. “So you came back. And you brought the green hatted one with you. Did you bring the items I require?” Ayashii asked. Klug shook his head. “O-Of course I didn’t bring such items to you! Do you take me for a fool!?” Ayashii laughed. “I take you for a coward, that’s what.”<br/>
Lemres pulled out his staff, holding it as if he was prepared to cast a spell. “Now now, let’s not get hasty here. We’re just here to talk.”<br/>
The demon was quiet. “Say what you will. It doesn’t matter to me.” Lemres shook his head. “Actually, it does matter to you. Since you’re the one who’ll be affected by it.” He slowly walked over to the book, the demon inside growling as Lemres stepped closer. “You aren’t leaving that book. But at the same time, if word gets out of you and your power, there’s going to be a LOT of people who want to try and get ahold of it. Which is not only bad for me and Klug, but for Primp as well. So here’s what we’re going to do.”<br/>
Lemres beckoned Klug forward, the bookworm cautiously stepping closer to the demon in the book. “You two have worked together before, correct? I think you’ve worked well together before I’ve even met you. It was just when those items came into focus that Ayashii got a little power hungry.” Klug nodded. “We’ve worked as a team for countless Puyo matches before, yes, but-”<br/>
“So long as Ayashii stays in his book, then he shouldn’t have any power, Klug. He’s just a small little paper fella while in there. Plus, you can do this if he starts bothering you.”<br/>
Lemres slammed the book shut, the demon giving out a small “Meep!” as the book slammed on top of him. After a few seconds, Ayashii easily opened the book back up again. “Are you implying that I am to work with this coward?” The demon asked. Lemres nodded. “You’ve possessed Klug’s body, meaning you know the ins and outs of his magic. You can help him grow.”<br/>
Lemres then turned to Klug. “It makes sense that you’d be worried about him possessing you and the power he wields. But so long as he’s in this book, there’s no way that Ayashii can hurt you, or take over your body. And I’ve hidden the items far away, so that nobody can find them.” The warlock explained. Klug was still very hesitant. Lemres placed a hand on Klug’s back supportively, slightly pushing Klug towards the book. “And you’re assuming I’d want to help this fool… why?” Ayashii asked. Lemres shrugged. “You’re right. You don’t have a reason. But you’re looking for the body of your descendant, right? Well, if you stick around in Klug’s book, you might be able to get on good terms with them.”<br/>
This seemed to appease Ayashii for a brief moment. “Hmph. So you’re saying if I assist this fool, I’d be more likely to get closer to the body of my descendant?” He asked. Lemres nodded. “If ya do a good job you can at least say “hi”. If ya do better than that you can get a few more words in. Can’t promise you that your descendant will have much to say back to you, though.” Ayashii turned to Klug.<br/>
“Very well then. I’ll assist you. But in return, you must become stronger. I can’t allow someone I support to be weak.” Klug nodded. “I- Yes! I will do what I can to become a more powerful wizard!”<br/>
“Quit with the stutter!”<br/>
“R-RIGHT!”<br/>
Lemres laughed at their banter. “All’s well that ends well I suppose. If ya need a hand with anything, lemme know, alright? I'll be just one town over.” Klug nodded, slowly picking up the book from the table. “Of course. I… thank you. Lemres.” The warlock smirked.<br/>
“Anytime, bud. Might you care for some candy? Just to celebrate the occasion.”<br/>
“Certainly!”</p>
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